In this episode of the Heroes and Icons podcast, host Greg Randolph sits down with Chad Collins, the author of Run To The Fire: The True Story of Vietnam Vet Rick Collins. Chad shares the inspiring story of his father, Rick Collins, who returned from Vietnam 100% disabled and found purpose in coaching youth football in Garland, Texas. Despite his injuries, Rick's passion for teaching the game, instilling character traits, and fostering leadership was unwavering. Chad recalls growing up by his father's side, developing a love for football that extended to playing at Texas Tech. Rick's influence also touched his grandsons, who both played college football.
The episode highlights a touching story about NFL legend Roger Staubach, who frequently visited veterans like Rick in the V.A. Hospital, leaving a profound impact. Staubach's significant role in Rick's life is commemorated in the foreword of Chad's book. This conversation underscores the deep importance of football to the Collins family and Rick's enduring legacy.
Listen to the full podcast by clicking the button below. Partial transcript below.
CC: And so if you think about the mentality of living life on the two-yard line where everything really is important, knowing what's what you've got to do to get through to whatever that next play is, that's how we lived life. So those coaches started it. And then and we'll sure we're going to talk a little bit about his injuries and things of that nature.
But when he came back from Vietnam, he was 100 percent disabled. And so, he couldn't work. And my mom actually went and signed him up to coach in Garland, Texas, in the youth football league there, and she did it because she knew that an outlet like that was going to be a great outlet for him.
He always bragged about his coaches and those relationships and how much they meant to him. And if he could turn that and give back to youth, he wanted to do that. You know, so many times people get into youth coaching because they have kids playing. My dad didn't have any kids yet old enough to play any sports.
So, he was coaching well before he could ever coach me personally and then even coached after that. And so, he loved teaching the game of football. But more than that, he was teaching character traits and just leadership and how you come together as a team and football. So even for me growing up, I can remember almost as one of my earliest memories of life was being by his side, watching him coach football, taking me to high school games, taking me to college games and watching football all the time. It meant a great deal to him. And then for myself, I fell in love with the game of football and my dad coached me as a youth. He was at every one of my practices.
He was at every one of my games all the way through even get to play a little bit at Texas Tech early in my college life. And then his grandsons, my two boys, he was at literally every practice and every game of theirs also for all of their youth. And those two kids like I mentioned, playing college football now my dad, Rick Collins was a huge influence on that.
And I'm going to talk about Roger Staubach and heroes of his, he grew up in the Dallas area. So, it was first the Dallas Texans and then the Dallas Cowboys. And so he would talk about one of the greatest things for him growing up was going to the Cotton Bowl and watching the Dallas Texans play.
And that was obviously the professional team at the time. And then the Dallas Cowboys. In 1970, When my dad had actually gotten hurt a second time, he had actually been hit by a bus which is just crazy to even say those words. But he was run over by a bus while in a vehicle and spent about six months in the V.A. Hospital in Dallas. And one of the visitors that he had on multiple occasions there was Roger Staubach. was a young player with the Dallas Cowboys have been drafted, had served some time in the Navy after his Naval Academy graduation. He obviously won the Heisman Trophy. As you mentioned, he was in Vietnam as well, and he would come.
Roger Staubach would come to the V. A. Hospital in Dallas without any fanfare. without an entourage, and he would walk up and down the hallways and just peek ahead into rooms, ask if it was okay to come in and visit. And my dad would tell you that meant such an incredible amount to all those young soldiers who were new coming back from Vietnam, a lot of them recovering or others that maybe from Korea or World War 2 that happened to need health care from the VA at the time.
And Roger Staubach would come and sit for hours at a time in the rooms of these young soldiers like my dad. And that meant an incredible amount for somebody like him, of his stature to go do that. And when I was writing the book one of the things that I always thought about is, man, you know, could I have a Roger Staubach write the foreword of a book?
And I had some connections to him through a close family friend. And long story short, he became the author of the that 1st section of the book that really is pretty inspiring just to listen to and read his words about my dad and stuff.
GR: Pretty cool! You pretty much answered what I was going to ask, but my next question was how important is football to your family?
I think you answered that pretty well.
